BROOKLYN – The Yeshiva University women's basketball team's late-game rally was not enough, as St. Joseph's College Brooklyn was able to hang on to earn a 96-78 Skyline victory, at the Hill Center, on Tuesday evening. The Bears advance to 4-0 in the conference (5-3 overall), while the Maccabees drop to 0-5 in league play (1-6 for the season).

Leading the way for the Maccabees was freshman guard Yuval Nitzan, who led all players with a career-best 32 points, including 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc. She also forced a game-high eight steals, distributed four assists, and grabbed three rebounds. Senior forward Tehilla Teigman notched a double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while collecting a pair of steals.

Nitzan opened the game with a layup to put YU up, 2-0. St. Joseph's broke the game open right away by scoring 17 unanswered points to take the lead for good.

Yeshiva trailed by as many as 22 points in the second quarter but worked its way back into the game. Nitzan drained a 3-point field goal to pull the Blue and White to within 18, at 58-40, with 46 ticks left on the clock. After Yeshiva forced a stop on its next defensive possession, Nitzan connected on a jump shot with one second left in the half, to shrink the home team's hold to 16 at the intermission.

Yeshiva could not get the game closer during the third stanza, as St. Joseph's extended its advantage to 80-58 after 30 minutes of play.

The Maccabees took over the momentum in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Bears by a 12-2 margin in the first 4:43 of the stanza to narrow the deficit to 82-70. The highlight of the run was Nitzan forcing a steal and finding sophomore guard Jessie Orgel, who converted a layup off a fast break. Nitzan capped off the rally with a successful jump shot to decrease the Bears' lead to 12 with 5:17 remaining in regulation time.

Later in the period, Teigman drained two shots from the charity stripe to pull YU to within 10, at 84-74, with 3:43 left to play. Teigman struck again, with 2:56 remaining, as her layup narrowed the opposition's lead to 84-76. That's as close as Yeshiva would get, as St. Joseph's Brooklyn went on a 12-2 run during the remaining 2:40 of play to pull away to a 96-78 Skyline victory.

Senior guard Leah Shulman added five points for the Macs, while junior forward Lindsay Brandwein produced four points and five rebounds.

For the Bears, junior guard Kelly O'Donnell generated a team-high 27 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists. Freshman center Emma Kiley produced a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while distributing three assists. Senior forward Lauren Quesada just missed a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Yeshiva will host Sarah Lawrence College, in a Skyline Conference matchup at the Campbell Sports Center, on Thursday evening. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.